New Technology Gives WRAL News a Touch of Glass

WRAL Raleigh has always been a pace-setter in terms of technological innovations, so it fits that the station is featuring some Google Glass perspectives on its morning show this week.

WRAL debuted the technology--which it defines as a "wearable, voice-controlled computer with an optical head-mounted display and built in video camera"--in its morning news Feb. 11. Anchor Bill Leslie was first to try it out live. The studio crew chief, news producer and traffic anchor will each take a turn on a different day this week, giving viewers "a never before viewpoint of the news," says the Capitol Broadcasting station, via a live stream.

“We’ve chosen four different people to wear them, so viewers can get a different perspective each day and a real sense of what it’s like behind the scenes during a live newscast,” says WRAL News Director Rick Gall. “Viewers often ask what happens in the studio during commercial breaks. Now, they’ll know.”

The stunt has its own hashtag: #WRALGlass.

WRAL explains Google Glass better than I can: "Glass delivers an augmented reality image to the wearer. It can search the internet, answer dictated questions, take pictures, and record video."

The station isn't quite sure how Google Glass will fit into news gathering in the future. But it is experimenting. “There are some challenges because the technology is so new. We’ll see how it goes and what other ways we might be able to use it in the future," said Steven Hammel, WRAL VP and GM.